Zip Your Lips Pouch Tutorial

Hi! It's Mandi from Making Nice in the Midwest. I've resisted carrying a large purse for quite some time. But I think I might be in the process of becoming a big bag convert! It's really great to be able to stash the usual suspects deep inside a purse, plus three pairs of lipstick, tissues, a tiny bottle of dry shampoo, a little notebook for when inspiration strikes, some feminine products in case something else strikes, and well, the list goes on! But if you're going to carry a large purse or tote, there's no doubt that you'll need some pouches to organize (or hide!) some of its contents.

This lip pouch idea came to me after I saw Laura's heart clutch post, and it was just too funny not to do! I mean, a zipped lips bag for stashing little secrets? Purse humor doesn't get much better than that. Plus Emma had the great idea of making the zipper white like teeth. Perfect! So if you're a beginner seamstress (or seamster?), check out my instructions below to make your own!

Step One: Print the pattern pieces linked above. Do not scale or shrink the images before printing. Pin the cut-out pattern pieces onto the fabric (keep them straight with the fabric) and cut out the pieces carefully. Don't cut out the pieces too large!

Step Two: Pin the bottom half of the lip to the front of the zipper, as shown in the above left image. The edge of your fabric will be even with the edge of the zipper. You'll want the nice side of the fabric to face the face of the zipper. Your stitches should be about 1/8" from the edge of the zipper's teeth, or just keep your foot positioned at a half inch from the edge of your fabric.

After sewing, fold back the fabric as shown above right and iron it flat. Then do the same with the upper portion of the lip.

For step two, you will need to use a zipper foot on your sewing machine or a foot without a left edge, like the foot I used (as shown above). It's difficult to sew alongside a zipper when the machine foot is resting on top of it.Step Three: Once the top portion of the lip is also sewn onto the zipper and ironed flat, you can trim the edge of your zipper to reflect the shape of your lips.Step Four: Pin the front of the piece you just sewed together to the back piece of the pouch. You'll want the good sides to both face inwards. Pin the zipper handle side first, then slightly unzip the zipper before pinning the rest of the fabric into place. This is so you can turn the piece inside out when you've finished stitching it together.

Step Five: After the pieces have been sewn together, clip little v's around the edge, as shown in the above right image. This will help the pouch look nice and not pucker when flipped right side out. After I clipped my edges, I actually went back and clipped it some more, because it still puckered a bit when I flipped it out. Once you flip it right side out, you may iron it so that it lays nicely.Step Six: Repeat the same process with the inside fabric, only instead of sewing a zipper onto it, just iron a half-inch fold into the opening of the lips.

Step Seven: At this point with the inside portion of the pouch, you will have pinned the faces together, sewn around the edges, and clipped around the stitching just as you did with the outside portion of the pouch. Do not flip this part right side out as you did with the other part. Instead, you'll be fitting it inside of the outside portion of the pouch to be the lining.Step Eight: Fit the inside portion into the pouch and then slip-stitch the edge around the zipper with white thread. Do not get the edge of the lining as close to the zipper as I did (shown above right), because the zipper ended up getting caught on the fabric, and I had to restitch the lining to be farther away from the zipper! Annoying. So learn from my mistake on that, unless you're a weirdo and like ripping out stitches.Once the lining is in place, check out the zipper to make sure it's not getting stuck on the lining. If it is, the slip-stitching might be too close to the zipper and will need to be redone, giving the zipper some more room. If your zipper works perfectly, then hooray! You can now fill the pretty little lip pouch with the contents of your choice. I chose lipstick.These zipped lips are the perfect little humorous addition to your purse, or a great project to whip up a few in different colors as gifts for your friends! What you put inside can be your little secret.

I thought these were hilarious and immediately created one as a gift for my big sister whom I’ll be visiting on Friday. Thanks for the printoff- it was really easy to change the size and make a little larger one!

These are adorable! I would love to do these for my own lipsticks (or maybe a secret pouch for my tampons, cause you know every cute, little purse always lacks a small zipper for those suckers). I’m not a big sewer, but this looks like an easy way to start off!

This is really cute!! If you didn’t want to slipstitch the lining to the bag, could you not sewing in the lining like a standard zip bag with lining, leaving a space in the bottom of one side and turning it right side out and then stitch the hole shut?

Love this! I’m trying to print the pattern but am having issue with getting it to print to the proper size. when i click the link and go to that tab, print that page it is printing 1/4 of the proper size. help! really want to make this project.
Any help is so appreciated!!
Thanks,
Gigi